


Precedents

by apolesen



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Alien Cultural Differences, Alien Culture, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cardassian culture is terrible, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Queer History
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2019-04-14 12:39:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14136213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apolesen/pseuds/apolesen
Summary: Julian asks Garak to marry him. It does not go the way he planned.





	Precedents

‘I had no idea you could cook, my dear,’ said Garak as Julian cleared the table. 

‘I did ask Captain Sisko for some pointers.’ 

‘Always so modest.’ 

Julian laughed and retrieved a small plate which stood under a cover all evening. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves. 

‘Is there more?’ Garak said, surprised. Julian placed the plate in front of him and sat down. Garak lifted the cover and lit up. ‘Delavian chocolates! You shouldn’t have, Julian.’ 

‘I know you like them,’ Julian said, trying his hardest to keep his voice sounding normal. Garak’s former career made him good at picking up on nervousness, and he did not want there to anything for him to read. He must have succeeded, because Garak only smiled and offered him the plate. ‘You go first,’ Julian said. 

‘Then I will,’ Garak said and took the top chocolate in the small pyramid. He popped it into his mouth and sighed with delight. When he had swallowed it, he looked back at the plate to take another one, but paused. ‘What is this?’ 

He moved some chocolates aside and reached into the remainder of the pyramid with two fingers. When he pulled them out, he was holding a ring. He looked from it to Julian, perplexed. 

‘Why is there a ring in my chocolates?’ he asked. Julian took a deep breath. 

‘Elim Garak,’ he said. ‘Will you marry me?’ 

The ring fell from his grip and clinked against the china. Julian looked for emotions in his face – surprise, joy, excitement, anything – but he found nothing. Garak was staring at him, his eyes so wide the whites of his eyes surrounded his iris. 

‘This is a marriage proposal?’ he said finally. 

‘Yes,’ Julian said. ‘The ring is an Earth tradition. You don’t have to wear it if you don’t want to, of course, but… I wanted to present you with something.’ 

Garak looked down at the chocolates and the ring, then over at Julian. A muscle in his face twitched, but it was the only movement. The silence felt unbearable. 

‘I love you,’ Julian said. ‘I want to share everything with you. I want to grow old with you. When we meet new people, I want to be able to say “this is my husband”.’

Garak pushed his chair back with a screech. 

‘This is absurd,’ he murmured. 

‘What?’ Julian said. Before him, Garak’s facial expression was reassembling into something that he could read. None of the emotions he had expected were there to be found. Instead, he saw shock, followed by disbelief and disgust. 

‘This must be a bad dream,’ Garak said, sounding like he was thinking out loud. ’It’s strange enough for it.’ 

‘A bad dream?’ Julian repeated. Garak threw his napkin onto the table and got to his feet. 

‘You want us to get married,’ Garak said incredulously. 

‘Yes!’ Julian stood up too. 

‘It’s a preposterous suggestion!’ Garak exclaimed. ‘Us! Getting married!’ 

Julian searched for words in vain. The impressions threatened to overwhelm him. His brain was throwing too many possibilities to keep up with. Was he moving too quickly - was it too early in their relationship? No, they’d been a couple for over four years. They might not live together properly, but it was close enough. Did Garak not see him that way? Did he not want it to be this serious? But it was this serious – it had been for a long time. Time and time again, Garak had shown that his feelings for Julian were deep and genuine. This was not a casual relationship, and it had not been for a long time. Did Garak have a spouse somewhere in the Cardassian Empire he had never mentioned? For all his lies, his affection was real. No, this was not about him. It was about both of them. 

‘Why shouldn’t we get married?’ Julian asked. 

‘We have no business to,’ Garak said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

‘What? Because we’re different species?’ 

Garak’s laugh had a hysterical edge. 

‘My dear, the issue is not what is different but what is the same.’ 

The realisation felt like a weight dropping inside him. 

‘You won’t marry me because I’m a man?’ 

Garak nodded. 

‘It’s an alien concept to Cardassian society.’ 

‘You don’t live in Cardassian society,’ Julian snapped. ‘And neither do I.’ 

‘That is a poor argument to win me over,’ Garak said. ‘That is not by choice, as well you know. And I really do not need another lecture on the excellence of the Federation.’ 

‘Do you honestly think you don’t deserve to get married? Shouldn’t our relationship be recognised?’ 

‘To what purpose?’ Garak exclaimed. 

‘For the same purpose as anyone else’s,’ Julian said. The words were coming very fast now, enough that he barely had time to think them through before they were out of his mouth. ‘Because I love you. Because if someone pulls my personnel file, I want your name to be on there.’ 

‘Oh that will definitely help your career,’ Garak said. ‘Forever branded with the name of a Cardassian spy.’ 

‘What if I’m injured during a mission? If I lay dying in a Federation hospital, Starfleet would do anything they could to make sure you could be there with me, and vice versa.’ 

Garak stared at him. Julian felt himself deflate. 

‘Don’t you love me?’ he asked. 

‘I do,’ Garak said. ‘More than I thought possible. But marriage is an institution that only exists to keep women in check and breed legitimate children.’

‘No!’ Julian exclaimed. ‘That’s not right at all. Marriage is about love…’ 

‘Not on Cardassia.’ 

‘We’re not _on_ Cardassia!’ 

Garak’s stare gained a new edge. 

‘Your Federation is always preaching tolerance and acceptance,’ he said, ‘but you are hypocrites. This is not my culture.’ 

‘It’s mine!’ Julian said. 

‘For a few hundred years,’ Garak snorted. ‘That is no time at all. It’s not like you’re Vulcan.’ 

‘Are you honestly saying you won’t marry me because the institution of same-sex marriage on my home-planet isn’t old enough? Now who’s being absurd!?’ 

‘You, my dear, for even bringing it up.’ Garak took a deep, steadying breath. ‘Thank you for the dinner. Now, I will take my leave of you.’ 

Without another word, he turned and left. Julian stood frozen, staring at the knocked-over chocolate pyramid and the abandoned ring.

***

‘You look awful,’ O’Brien said when he stepped onto the turbolift. Julian was leaning against the wall, trying to ignore how much his eyes ached.

‘I had dinner with Garak,’ he said. O’Brien got a look of realisation on his face. 

‘You asked him?’ 

‘Yeah.’ 

‘Did it… not go well?’ 

‘It went absolutely tits-up.’ 

O’Brien sighed. 

‘He said no.’ 

‘Not as such,’ Julian said. ‘Really, he said it was “absurd”, “preposterous”, and a lot of other things besides.’

‘I’m so sorry, Julian,’ O’Brien said sincerely. ‘If there’s anything I can do…’ 

Julian shook his head. 

‘Thanks, but there’s no need.’ 

‘Are you sure?’ 

‘Yes, I’m sure.’ 

The turbolift slowed and stopped at the promenade. 

‘I’ll drop by later today,’ O’Brien called after him. Julian raised his hand in acknowledgement, but did not turn around. He crossed the promenade without greeting anyone and barely paused to let the duty nurse hand him the night report. 

‘I have some things to look over,’ he told her. ‘I’ll be in my office.’ 

Not waiting for a reply, he headed to his chair at the computer terminal. He glanced through the night report, then put the PADD aside. 

‘Computer, access historical database.’ 

‘ _Accessing._ ’ 

‘Display directory on screen. Engage manual commands.’ 

‘ _Manual commands engaged._ ’ 

He leaned closer to the screen, shielding it from view. He sincerely hoped that there would be no medical emergencies he would have to deal with today.

***

It was late afternoon when Julian gathered the dozen PADDs he had been working on and left the infirmary. Some part of him knew that this was a bad idea – he was driven by anger and probably not good judgement – but he did not give himself time to talk himself down. He dodged a Bolian freighter captain and narrowly avoided running into one of Odo’s deputies as he dashed down the promenade to Garak’s shop. Garak had his back to the door, concentrating on the frock-coat Quark was trying on. 

‘Stop poking me!’

‘If you held still, I would not poke you,’ Garak snapped back. 

Julian dumped his PADDs on the table of shirts, making Garak turn around. 

‘Doctor!’ he said. ‘I did not expect to see you here.’ 

Not acknowledging Garak, Julian looked over at Quark. 

‘Quark, leave us.’ 

‘He hasn’t paid for that,’ Garak objected. 

‘It’s full of pins!’ Quark added. 

‘Then leave _carefully_ ,’ Julian said. ‘And come back another time.’

Quark sighed. 

‘Fine.’ 

He left, muttering under his breath. Julian looked after him, making sure he did not linger. He could feel Garak’s eyes on him. When Quark was out of sight, he turned back and met his gaze. 

‘What is all this about?’ Garak asked. ‘Storming in here, sending away my customers!’ 

‘I need to talk to you,’ Julian said. 

‘And that could not have waited?’ 

‘No, it couldn’t.’ 

‘I suppose this is about yesterday,’ Garak said, sounding as though all it had been was a small tiff. 

‘Of course it is.’ 

‘And what are these for?’ Garak pointed to the PADDs that lay scattered over his wares. 

‘You wanted precedent,’ Julian said. ‘Here it is.’ He picked up a PADD. ‘The ancient Assyrians had blessings for same-sex unions in the second millennium BCE. That’s three and a half millennia ago. In the Akkadian epic of Gilgamesh, the hero dreams of an ax outside his marital chamber, and when they interpret the dream, he gets told that it is a man, and “you love him and embrace him as a wife”.’ He pushed the PADD into Garak’s hand and picked up another few, going through them one by one. ‘There are graves from the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt where two men were buried together and depicted like a married couple. The Sacred Band of Thebes, where couples fought even harder because their love for each other. Their relationships were important enough to base military strategies on! Around that time, men would travel to the island of Sardinia and go to the tomb of Iolaus, a Greek hero’s lover, to pledge themselves to each other. Then there are multiple mentions of marriage between men in Roman literature and, although they’re not always mentioned in a positive light, they show that it was not an unknown concept. There were marriages performed between men in early Christian churches. There are accounts of men living together as man and wife from fourteenth century Egypt, and at the Siwa Oasis, there were marriage contracts between men until the early twentieth century. Also, there are the Azande of Central Africa where similar rituals for courting a girl and courting a boy were used. There’s more – see for yourself.’ He dropped another PADD on top of the others Garak was holding. He looked at them, rather confused. 

‘Have you done any actual work today, Julian?’he asked innocently. Julian fought the impulse to smile. 

‘There wasn’t much happening,’ he said instead. ‘It gave me time to do some research. I found that you’re wrong about that there is no tradition of unions between men on Cardassia. I read the Zerat epic while having lunch. There are several characters whose relationships are just as genuine as heterosexual couples’.’ 

‘Fiction, my dear,’ Garak said. 

‘Fine. But didn’t the last prince of Kamard go into exile together with his shield-bearer? He was offered a woman to keep him company as his wife and he took him instead.’ 

‘The princes of Kamard were well-known for being both deviant and impractical,’ Garak said. ‘And it was fourteen hundred years ago.’ 

‘Gul Tamar and Gul Dinak, then. That’s only a century ago.’ 

‘Speculation.’ 

‘They lived out their lives together. They were awarded their medals together. They were buried in the same grave, with full military honours. I’ve seen statues and paintings of them, and you never get one without the other. Their close bond is one of the reasons why they were so popular.’ 

Garak sighed and put down the PADDs. 

‘You have wasted your time, my dear,’ he said. ‘If this is supposed to convince me, it hasn’t. But you’re not foolish enough to think it would.’ 

Julian sighed and sat down on the stool where only minutes ago, Quark had been standing in his half-altered frock-coat. 

‘No.’ 

‘Then why go to all this trouble?’ Garak asked. That edge in his voice was gone. 

‘I don’t know,’ Julian said. ‘Perhaps to convince myself that you were wrong.’

‘Do you think I am?’ 

‘Yes,’ Julian said without hesitation. ‘Your premise is flawed. You’re confusing existence with recognition. There have always been couples of the same gender. It’s just a question of whether society and the law acknowledges that.’ 

‘Something Cardassian society does not,’ Garak said, ‘at least for the most part.’ He sat down too. Julian sighed deeply and leaned against the wall. 

‘I suppose I should have asked you how you felt about this before I proposed.’ 

Garak smiled bitterly. 

‘It might have been wise.’ There was an air of finality about it. Julian bit his lip, fighting tears. 

‘Is this it, then?’ 

Garak moved his chair closer and put his hand on Julian’s shoulder. 

‘My dear boy, there’s no reason to cry. I don’t intend to go anywhere.’ 

Julian met his eye. 

‘This isn’t about that this isn’t your culture,’ he said. ‘Is it?’ 

‘It is,’ Garak said. ‘Although it might not be not all of it.’ 

‘Explain. Why don’t you want to marry me?’ 

Garak clasped his hands and sighed. 

‘Because marriage is a toxic institution that permeates all of Cardassian society. Everyone is divided into those who are part of it and those who aren’t and, more importantly, those who are the product of it and those who aren’t. Not a day would go by on Cardassia without some reminder of the fact that I am a bastard. Whispers, looks, but worse, all the things I was explicitly barred from doing. Offices I could never hold. Surely that’s enough of a reason to hate the very concept of marriage?’ 

‘I had no idea,’ Julian said. ‘but this wouldn’t be like that. Federation marriage is different.’

‘Yes,’ Garak said. ‘But it will mean our names will appear together in official records.’ 

‘That’s a good thing,’ Julian objected. Garak got to his feet. 

‘Is it?’ he asked. ‘Do you know what the first thing I would do when I had a new prisoner to interrogate? I would find out anything I could about their spouse. Sometimes knowing their name would be enough. And if it wasn’t – well, nothing is quite as effective as a demonstration of what you can do.’ He inhaled sharply. ‘I would not want to be at your death-bed if that privilege was the reason you got there.’ 

Julian got to his feet. 

‘People know about us already.’ 

‘Of course,’ Garak said. ‘But I see no reason to make it easy for people to use this against us.’ 

‘You’re being paranoid.’ 

‘I am not, and you know it.’

Julian sighed and rubbed his forehead. 

‘Is there really nothing I can say?’ 

Garak smiled. 

‘I’m afraid not,’ he said. ‘The answer to last night’s question is no. But also, I love you.’ 

Julian nodded. He felt the exhaustion of the past day very keenly now.

‘I might need a few days to work through this,’ he said. 

‘Of course,’ Garak said. ‘Take all the time you need. When you are ready, I will be there.’

‘Right.’ Julian walked over to the table and started collecting his PADDs. 

‘Actually,’ Garak said, ‘would you mind leaving those?’ At Julian’s surprised look, he said: ‘I do not know much about Earth history. I’d be interested to read about this.’ 

‘Alright.’ He put them down again. 

‘Tell me, Julian. Did you throw out those Delavian chocolates?’ 

‘No,’ Julian said, finding the question rather odd. 

‘Then you should have them,’ Garak said. 

‘I will.’ 

‘Did you read Veinar’s edition of the Zerat epic?’ 

‘No.’ 

‘You should,’ Garak said. ‘None of the others really get it right.’ 

Julian realised he was smiling. 

‘Perhaps we can discuss it later in the week.’ 

Garak smiled back. 

‘I would like that very much.’ He extended his hand towards him. Julian slipped his own into it, cherishing the soft skin of his palm and the texture of the scale on the back of his hand. 

‘I’ll see you in a few days, then,’ Julian said. He hesitated for a moment, then gave into the urge to lean closer. Garak move to meet him. They kissed carefully, as if not certain they would not break if they were too forceful. They did not. Julian let the kiss last longer than he had meant it to. When he pulled away, it was with some regret. 

‘See you,’ he said. Garak smiled. 

‘I’ll be counting the moments.’ 

Julian laughed. 

‘Oh sod off.’ 

As he left the shop, he could hear Garak chuckling.

**Author's Note:**

> Sources for Bashir's examples of historical same-sex unions can be found here: http://apolesen.tumblr.com/post/172375720322/notes-to-precedents-history-of-same-sex-unions


End file.
